Improvement in liquid and gas meters and motors



1.. A. STENBERG.

Liquid and Gas Meters and Motprs. No.158,995. Patentedjan.19,l875.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN A. STENBERG, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

IMPROVEMENT IN LIQUID AND GAS METERS AND MOTORS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 158,995, dated January19, 1875; application filed August 29, 1874.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JOHN A. STENBERG, ofChicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have inventedcertain Improvements in Liquid and Gas Meters and Motors, of which thefollowing is a specification:

The nature of my invention will be fully understood from the followingdescription I and claim, and the accompanying drawing,

which forms a part of this specification, and in which Figure 1 is acentral longitudinal section, and Fig. 2 a cross-section, of thepeculiarlyformed chamber or cylinder. Fig. 3 is a face and end view ofthe pistonshoe. Fig. 4 is a diagram, showing the method of describingthe sectional outline of the interior of the cylinder.

Like letters of reference made use of in the several figures indicatelike parts.

In the said drawing, A represents the chamber in which the diametricwing or piston rotates, and which, although it is by no means a truecylinder in form, 1 term the cylinder. Within the cylinder A, andtouching it at the point a, is the smaller true cylinder or enlargedshaft B, slotted to receive the rotating sliding wing O, which passesthrough its center, is shod at each end with a shoe, e, and performs thepart of a piston.

The machine illustrated at Figs. 1, 2, and 3 is adapted as awater-meter, but by a slight and easily-understood alteration it may bemade into a steam-engine, as any one skilled in the art willreadily'see.

The operation is as follows: The water enters the ingress-pipe E, andpasses through the ingress-port E into the cylinder behind the wing,rotates said wing until the egressport F is reached, when it passes outand discharges by way of the egress-pipe F. This rotation continues solong as the water is allowed to flow. A piece of wire-gauze, b, at theinlet-port serves as a strainer to keep out dirt or grit, and a leatherflap or valve, d, at the egress-port resists the back flow of the water.

This meter may be used in any desired positi0n-in fact, it is shownupside down in the drawing-if the position in which the leather flapwill work best may be regarded as the normal position. It may be well,however, to remark that, from reasons other than the improved operationof the valve d, the meter will work best when the ingress-port is belowand the egress-port above. The meter may, however, be placed in anyposition, the difierence is. so inconsiderable. The shoes 6 applied tothe two edges of the Wing O are for the purpose of giving a largerbearing-surface at the sides of the cylinder A, to prevent rapid wear.The edges of said wing rest in V-shaped grooves in said shoes toaccommodate the various positions assumed in traversing thecylinder-surface. The small bridgelike projections tin said groove fitinto notches in the edge of the wing, to prevent any end motion and tostrengthen said shoes. The ends of the small cylinder or enlarged shaftB come out flush to the heads of the cylinder A, and trunnions Dsupporting said small cylinder are recessed into the heads H H of saidcylinder A, so that the wing C may be of such width as to fill thecylinder A laterally. The small cylinder B is formed with a long recessof the full length of the slot, to receive the shoes when the wingstands with one end at the point a.

I am well aware that rotary engines have heretofore been made with asliding diametric wing or piston passing through a slotted smallcylinder inside of a larger eccentric chamber in many general featuressimilar to my invention, but not like it in respect to the form of thecylinder A, which is peculiar to my invention; hence I will now proceedto describe minutely the form of said cylinder A by especial referenceto the diagram atFig. 4. of the drawmg.

To construct an outline of the interior of my improved cylinder,1 first,from the center M, describe the circle B, representing the diameter ofsmall interior cylinder marked in the previous figures with the sameletter. Through this center M I draw a straight line, N O, andperpendicular thereto a straight line, I? Q. From the point a at whichthe circle B cuts the line N 0, I lay off toward 0 any desired distance,say, a 1", which will be the length of the wing (J. From the center M onthe line P Q I lay off in each direction half of the distance (1'7",making M s and M t added together equal to a r or the length of thewing. Now, through the three points a" s t, from a center easily foundupon the line N O, as at u, I describe the circle-line r s t, which willbe a part of the required line. Produce the lineV WV through the centerM, and from the point 'D, where it cuts the circle 7' s t, lay off 0" toequal to a c. From the points s and t draw lines to the center to. Now,at some point in the lines 8 u and t u may be easily found centers 9from whence a circle-line may be drawn, cutting at the one side through8 w a, which will be the remaining line required, and which is to berepeated through it at. These instructions will apply to any sizecylinder A or any size cylinder B, or any proportion between the two,and will always give a figure composed of parts of circle-lines, so thatit may be produced upon a common lathe, and will be found to bemeasuring through the center M of the same diameter in every directionthrough said center. Thus it will be seen that the wing C may be asimple sheet or piece of metal without any arrangement of springs orflexible or changeable widths or ports to slide one upon another, asmust -be the case if the cylinder be not of the proper form, asdescribed.

The outer curved lines in the diagram rep resent different proportionsto the same size cylinder B, which may be extended to an indefinitenumber.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is-

A cylinder or case, A, whose outline is composed of segments of threecircles, the'centers and radiuses of which are determined by the formularepresented in Fig. 4.

JOHN A. STENBERG. Witnesses:

JOHN W. MUNDAY, Enw. S. EVARTS.

